


Fever Bright Star Light

by RemainingQuestions



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Gen, Sickfic, cub slides into German because i could, german now improved by help of friendly commenter!, its that got Specific brand of h/c i crave sometimes, never enough sick fic tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:21:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22566202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RemainingQuestions/pseuds/RemainingQuestions
Summary: Even workaholics need breaks. Sometimes they don't get a choice.Luckily this one has friends to help take care of him.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 89





	Fever Bright Star Light

**Author's Note:**

> many thanks to [Im_Not_Ryan_Ross_sorry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Im_Not_Ryan_Ross_sorry/pseuds/Im_Not_Ryan_Ross_sorry) for helping out with the german!!

Normally, it’s Scar that falls ill. 

He knows his limits, has learnt them well. Knows when he can push just that last bit and when he needs to step down and rest. 

Scar knows his limits well. 

But when Joe flies up to his volcano, it’s not to bring mushroom stew. “Scar?” It’s not even something he messaged about before. 

“I’m here!” Scar calls from the inside. 

Joe walks in, gaze distractedly skipping over the dark floor, and the little details. “Have you and Cub done any Convex stuff lately?” 

Scar turns to look closer to Joe, but his demeanor isn’t angry, of fidgety. He knows Concorp, or Convex, doesn’t always strike the other hermits with the most love. But Joe just seems earnestly interested, if a bit worried. Eventually, Scar shakes his head, “not recently, no. We’ve been working on our own projects a bit… Why?” 

Joe fiddles a bit, “well, I saw Cub in the shopping district, and he seemed a bit off. And sometimes you two have a bit of an off day after doing Convex stuff, but he flew off before I could ask him how he was, and, well, I’m worried.” Joe looks up, his eyes earnest. 

Scar feels his mind spin from building to concern. “He was… he was working on Concorp last we talked.” Surely Cub wouldn’t go Convex without him? He’d tell him at least, right? “We can go there, I know how to disable the security.” 

It’s not a short flight from Scar’s volcano to Concorp, but it doesn’t feel long, with the two of them cracking jokes. The worry underneath never quite disappears though. 

They land a fair distance from the imposing gates, and Joe waits as Scar moves forward to disable the security. 

But when Scar reaches the area where it should’ve gone into effect, nothing happens. 

The beacons are on, but there’s nothing attacking him. 

Scar feels his heartbeat speed up. Cub would never just disable the security like this. The switch is still on, so Scar flips it just to be safe. 

The beacons power off. 

Nothing else seems to change. 

“Come on, should be good now.” 

Joe hesitantly comes closer, still weary of the power of the Vex. But nothing happens, and he quickly speeds up to join Scar. “Y’all really do take security seriously, huh.” 

Scar shrugs, used to the minor paranoia that sometimes came with the power of the Vex. “A bit, I guess?” 

The machinery was ticking as it always was, Scar could hear now they were getting closer. “Cub?” He wanders closer, unsure where he should check first, “Cub, where are you?” 

“Cub?” Joe was wandering away a bit from Scar, but still within sight of the other hermit. 

It was Scar that found Cub, or maybe it was Cub that found Scar. 

He stumbles after an enderpearl, wrapped inside a blanket with red splotches high on his cheekbones. “Scar? What’re you-? Joe?” Cub actually hisses Joe’s name. 

“Cub, what’s going on?” Scar steps closer, worry over his friend clear. 

Cub shivers, and pulls his blanket closer around himself, “what’s _he_ doing here Scar? This is ConCorp property, I was _working_ -” 

“Cub, calm down, we were just worried.” Scar had gotten closer, and it wasn’t just that Cub was shivering while wrapped inside a blanket, his cheeks are also a splotchy bright red, and his pupils are blown. “Are you ill?” 

“What?” Cub pulls back, stumbling over the trail of his blanket, “no! I can’t be! I’m _working_.”

“Cub…” Scar steps closer again, and gently places a hand on Cub’s forehead, who sighs at the contact, “ **_oh_ **, you’re completely burning up!” 

“What, no,” Cub stepped back again, stumbling worse on his blanket, but Joe caught him. “Joe? When did you get here?” 

“Together with Scar, Cub,” Joe gently places his hands on Cub’s shoulders, and softly turns him towards the room with a bed. “Lets get inside for a bit, okay?” 

Cub nods, allowing himself to be pushed by Joe as Scar holds the door open. 

When they pass in the doorway, Scar and Joe share a worried look. 

Cub shivers again, and gravitates to the bed, sinking down onto it with a sigh. “What were we talking about again?” 

“You were talking about what you had last worked on Cub.” Joe’s voice was gentle, and Scar realises that what he was really asking was how he got this ill.

“Oh the cavalry, I finished the cavalry Scar.” His voice was filled with a sleepy pride, and his eyes focussed somewhere close to Scar’s face. “It’s underwater Scar, the horses.” 

Scar and Joe share another glance. If Cub had been underwater for a long time, even with a conduit, he very well could have gotten this ill from it. And Cub always pushed forwards, Scar knew. 

Cub jawns and blinks, his head lolling forward. “I was… working?” 

“No Cub, you’re going to sleep for a bit.” Scar pulls the blanket away from the bed. “Come on.” 

Cub’s face wrinkles in confusion, “was I?” His head lolls forward again, “okay Scar.” The last was said in a soft and small voice. 

“Come on, lay down.” Scar urges Cub on, and Cub listens. He doesn’t move as Scar settles the blanket over him. “Try and sleep a bit, okay?” 

Wrapped inside a blanket, and covered by another, Cub nods, his eyes falling gently closed. 

Joe and Scar share another meaningful glance. 

They step outside, quiet as they can. 

“Well, clearly Cub has a bad fever.” 

Joe nods. “Rest, hydration, cooling down,” he counted on his fingers, “but it seems he has the chills, so not cooling down.” 

“I wish we could do something more…” Cub was his friend, and all he could do was tell the man to sleep it off. 

Joe shakes his head, placing a gentle hand on Scar’s shoulder, “his body will do the rest. Can you keep an eye on him while I go and get some water and mushroom stew?” 

Scar nods, half his mind already back at his ill friend's bedside. 

Cub is still asleep when Scar goes back inside. Still with his cheeks glowing and shivering underneath two thick blankets. 

He feels himself flutter about, opening and closing chests, not knowing what he's looking for, not looking for anything specific. 

The sun is setting when Cub wakes up, Joe having long come and gone. 

His cheeks are still bright red, but he stops shivering, and he wriggles. Easily, Scar removes the top blanket from him, and when Cub turns to look at him, his pupils are still blown. “Scar?” He wriggles around the blanket that’s tangled around him, “Was ist los? Warum bist du hier?” 

Scar blinks, “uh, you’re ill Cub, you’ve got a fever.” He pulls at the blanket, and Cub moves so that it, too, gets removed. 

But Cub just blinks at what he says, even if he seems to recognize him. “Was?” 

Scar puts a hand on Cub’s head and bites his lip when he feels how hot his friend has become. Maybe it had been a bad idea to add another blanket, but he’d been shivering so badly… “I’m going to get Doc,” or ask him to come here, Scar added in his mind, but he didn’t want to make anything even more complicated. “Please eat some stew.” He hands Cub a bowl, “uh, e…essen? Please?” 

Cub still looks confused, and so small sitting in bed surrounded by blankets, but he takes the bowl, “Dankeschön.” 

Scar nods, quickly typing out a message to the server’s German member. _Hey Doc, Cub has a bad fever and he’s talking German now, could you come help out?_

Scar looks up, and Cub is slowly eating, but eating, nonetheless. His communicator pings, an answer from Doc. _I’m coming in from the nether, be there soon._

Well, it seemed like a lot of hermits would be shown around Concorp’s headquarters. Scar can’t find it in himself to be upset, or worried. He worries about leaving Cub alone, but he puts down a bucket, and really, it’s only a few minutes. It better be only a few minutes. 

The portal flares up only moments after Scar arrives at it. Doc steps through, redstone dust on his sleeves and his backpack bulging. “Cub has a fever?” 

Scar nods and turns to walk away. “A really bad one,” here one turn, and yes, Doc was still following, “Joe saw him walking around with a blanket, but then he’d already flown off.” Here, this water elevator. “We got him to sleep, at least, but he woke up speaking German, and he didn’t seem to understand me, either.” The last bit hurts. Cub is one of his closest friends, and right when he needs Scar… Scar can’t talk to him. 

“Right,” Doc says, and Scar can hear the worry underneath the clipped word. 

Finally, Scar opens the door to the storage room that’s also functioning as Cub’s bedroom. “Cub?” 

“Ja?” He looks up at Scar, still so clearly so ill, so small without his labcoat, surrounded by blankets. 

“Wie geht's dir, Cub?” Doc asks, kneeling down. 

“Doc?” Scar looks from Scar to Doc, and there’s questions in his eyes. “Mir ist heiß aber sonst geht’s mir gut, aber spricht Scar eine andere Sprache oder so?” 

“Du hast dich erkältet.” Doc glances to Scar, fiddling with his hat. “Und deswegen hast du auch ein Fieber.” 

“Oh.” It’s odd to see Cub, who normally always thinks fast, take so long to respond. “Ja, das erklärt so Einiges.” Cub looks to Scar, his pupils blown and cheekbones bright red. “Es tut mir Leid. Ich sollte… Ich weiß, dass du dir Sorgen machst.” 

Doc turns to Scar too, and sighs. “He’s saying sorry. For worrying you.” 

“Oh I- he- you-” Scar shakes his head, and looks Cub in the eyes, even though he wouldn’t be able to understand him, right now. “It’s okay. Just focus on getting better.” 

Doc turns back to Cub, who is staring dazedly at him. “Er sagt, dass du dir keine Sorgen machen sollst. Fokussier dich lieber darauf, schnell wieder gesund zu werden.”

Cub nods, slowly. “Okay.” 

They get Cub to drink some water, and finish his stew. He seems to understand now that it’s needed, even if he doesn’t want to. 

Eventually, Cub falls back asleep and Doc badgers Scar into resting too. 

Cub wakes up, and drinks the water Doc hands him, and falls back asleep again. 

Scar sleeps late, exhausted from worry and Doc lets him, and when he does finally wake up, he gets a big bowl of stew presented to him too. 

Cub wakes up just as Scar finishes eating, and Scar immediately checks his temperature. “Still got a fever, but less badly.” 

“Oh hey, English.” Cub blinks sleepily, as if it was normal to just forget a whole language for a while. 

“Cub!” Scar says, smiling. “You had us worried there.” 

Cub looks at Scar’s eyes. “I’m sorry Scar.” He reaches out, and tangles one hand with Scar’s, tugs of his blanket with the other. “Can we go outside, for a bit?” 

Scar’s fingers squeeze Cub’s. “For a little while. It’s night.” 

Cub stands, slowly so he doesn’t wobble, “that’s okay, you can tell me about the constellations.” 

The night air is cool and refreshing, and Scar doesn’t miss how Cub sighs out. Drags in a deep breath of fresh air. 

They take a slow stroll through the buildings, the torches a warm light. Scar watches Cub the whole time, careful to spot any stumbling or shivering, but he really is better. His fever really broken. There’s no need to say anything. They simply are. 

They end up in the front and Cub sits down, drags down Scar with him, “tell me about space, Scar.” 

Scar settles down next to Cub, and lays down. “Okay.” Cub already knows all this, and Scar already talked about it before, but it’s a comforting topic for the both of them. “See that constellation?” He points up, fingers tracing minute dots. “That’s the Big Dipper, part of Ursa Major. If you extend the line between those two stars, Merak and Dubhe, there, you get the North Star, Polaris.” Scar looks over to Cub, and he’s looking upwards, but his eyes aren’t focussed on anything. 

“Hm?” He turns to Scar as the silence grows. 

Scar looks him over, from the unkemptness of his beard to the bags under his eyes. “Let’s go back inside Cub.” 

“Really?” 

Scar stands up, and tugs Cub up too. “Come on Cub. Sleep time.” 

Cub doesn’t struggle against Scar’s gentle and firm grip. “Okay.” A yawn splits his face. “Okay.” 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Cure For What Ails You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20808932) by [sprucewoodcottage (ironmermaidens)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ironmermaidens/pseuds/sprucewoodcottage)




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